Funny you ask that question. No, I do not think religion promotes hate. I do think it (primarily) promotes intolerance.
And, no, I don't think you can prove everything. But if you tell me that a God/InsertNameHere tells me what to do or not do, well, then I want some proof. No, I will never really be able to scientifically test whether my wife loves me (my first didn't). There are many things that can be tested, far more than people WISH to test. It is far easier, in my opinion, to just go along. We, as a species, have often taken that route. The flock metaphor is more than apt. Using the excuse of "other icky hard to define things" is a cop out. Maybe a little more hard questioning of those "icky..." is in order. And, as you say, some will never have answers. Granted, millions may do good, though I think many people talk more than their actions show. But how can you measure what their intolerance has done to harm people by their tacit complicity with policies of the church, or in our case, government? Let's face it, our government was built on those intolerances and only the Constitution, which is being slowly subverted, is protecting us today. The influence of the an outspoken minority carries far more when than a silent majority. Who is to say what it will be like in 10 or 20 years? Organized religion has been used over and over to inflict horrendous pain on the world. How many suffered in the Inquisition? Under repressive Islamic extremist regimes? Many of these use religion to lend authority and validity to what they do. You are right in a sense, it is the interpretation of the religion. So, would it be better to not have any, so no interpretation needed? Would we all just be nice to each other? Would that work? -Gary > -----Original Message----- > From: Raymond Camden [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 1:59 PM > To: CF-Community > Subject: RE: fallwell is a nutter - happy geo?? > > > Is it fair to blame religion for the faults of the followers though? > Does any religion _really_ promote hatred? It seems to me that most of > the problems come from interpertation, not religion or faith in general. > > To simply say, "you must be able to prove it" (to provide my crude > summary of the link below), is far to simple. Faith, and other icky hard > to define things, like love, hate, etc, are part of us, and to simply > write it off as unscientific is... well, sad. > > For every Falwell, there are thousands, if not millions, of people who > use their faith in God/InsertNameHere to make their lives, and those > around them, better. > > -RC > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: Gary P. McNeel, Jr. [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] > > Sent: Monday, October 29, 2001 2:53 PM > > To: CF-Community > > Subject: RE: fallwell is a nutter - happy geo?? > > > > > > This is the type of reasoning that is so typical of religion. > > Chicken before > > the egg stuff. It is, therefore is must be. Sadly, children > > are not full of > > racial or gender prejudices, only us grown ups that inflict > > our weaknesses > > and fears on them. Falwell is, like Hitler, a weak person who > > makes up for > > it by being aggressive and finding the fears and weaknesses > > of like minded > > people to play off of and make himself feel better. > > > > I try to apply the list below to what I hear. > > > > http://www.snshouston.com/Personal/CarlSagan/baloney.htm > > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Your ad could be here. Monies from ads go to support these lists and provide more resources for the community. http://www.fusionauthority.com/ads.cfm Archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/cf-community@houseoffusion.com/ Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/index.cfm?sidebar=lists
